


such a fine girl

by d__T



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: 4th Legion, Canon compliant trauma, Character Death, Not Canon Compliant, The Very Worst AU, spiritual horror, unholiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 17:09:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14981732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/d__T/pseuds/d__T
Summary: The Very Worst AU where Ego got to Peter before Yondu did and Ego and Thanos thought they could give each other what they wanted: an empty universe with infinite power.Mantis is a watchful bug, and this is what she sees...





	such a fine girl

Mantis kept hope hidden behind her antenna for years. A place Master Ego wouldn't go, didn't think to look for it. Her whole life, even when Master Ego fell in with Thanos. Kept it hidden from him, kept it for herself even as she reduced herself to large dark eyes hiding in the plasticky vines. She never knew, but the insect part of herself knew that they weren't real.

 _snap_  

She couldn't save the kids before.

_snap_

And now she can't save the last one.

_snap_

She and Master Ego had spent an odd decade alone, searching, waiting, until Thanos found them. Master Ego and Master Thanos formed schemes and liaisons and Mantis felt the slurry of betrayal on Master Ego when she bade him sleep.

Master Thanos had no such needs. Mantis stayed in the vines.

_snap_

The last one. Peter. Beautiful and tender and full of love. Wearing hope on his face and his sleeve and in his heart.

Face locked in the rictus of impalement.

The clockwork fish don't tell time, but she knows that he's still in there somewhere after all this time. Things fall out of him; things she does not recognize, and things that horrify her because she does recognize them.

She can't get close enough to touch him, surrounded as he is by the glow of a nova. She's not sure she wants to know but she's curious and that might make her the only truly alive person here.

This _thing_ , and Mantis in all her generosity won't call it a person, shambles around and hums to itself. Sometimes it sings, lost and vague. She'd tried, but not even hope will make a soulless thing a person. She'd hoped only for a fellow flea.

_your eyes could steal a sailor from the sea_

Hand to its head, and there's nothing there.

_brandy wears a braided chain_

She can't lay the ghost to rest.

_made of the finest silver from the north of spain_

She watches it wander on stiltlike legs from her place inside the vines. It mostly stays in the room Peter is speared up in, ranging around like it's on an elastic band with Peter at the center. Sometimes it goes out into the Masters' areas, trailing bony sick-skinned fingers along the walls, and Master Ego gets this  _look_ on his face until Mantis brings it back to Peter.

_your eyes could steal a sailor from the sea_

_snap_

The ghost wanders, unaffected, even as Mantis feels the pull of the gauntlet on the wards Master Ego had placed against her and Peter being taken. Not alive enough to kill.

_brandy wears a braided chain_

The ghost is tall enough to look Peter in the eyes, but his are empty now. Mantis remembers stars oh-so-long-ago but now when it looks into his eyes and caresses his face, all she hears is

_mother_


End file.
